


drops

by kaaogami (ghoulnoace)



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Angst, Drabble Collection, Fluff, M/M, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-11
Updated: 2017-11-12
Packaged: 2018-10-03 00:41:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 11,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10231667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghoulnoace/pseuds/kaaogami
Summary: Drabbles from tumblr. From fluff to angst and smut.---------------Ch 14 - stray, ii // Taiga knows him. The man who killed his father.





	1. cattales, i

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kitten looks up at him, nuzzles at his chest, and purrs.
> 
> **
> 
> Fluff <3

Daiki wasn’t really planning on going back. He’s tired as fuck, and the only thing he wants to do is go home, eat his boyfriend’s amazing cooking, have a quick round of sex because he’s never too tired for that, and then crash to sleep with his arms wrapped tight around Taiga’s heat.

But the soft mewling cries ring louder and louder in his ears with every step he takes farther and farther away.

So with a deep sigh, he turns, walks back to the abandoned box sitting forlornly just a few ways into the dark alleyway, and crouches down.

A pair of bright, golden eyes stare back at him, its owner letting out a high pitched meow that tugs at his heart and lifts his spirits the way only his boyfriend can accomplish from simply _being there_.

He knows then that he’s not going home alone.

“Aw shit,” he murmurs, rubbing at the back of his neck exasperatedly. “Taiga’s gonna get mad at me for this.”

He takes a quick look around the area to check that there’s no angry mama cat that’s going to claw at his face, before he lifts the kitten out of the box and into his arms. It’s small, hardly larger than his hand, dirty, and looks terribly fragile with its tiny paws and big, round eyes.

The kitten looks up at him, nuzzles at his chest, and purrs.

“Ah, fuck,” Daiki groans, resigned, then he turns back and walks towards home, tucking the kitten more securely against him.

He hopes Taiga’s not scared of cats.

 


	2. cattales, ii

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You brought home a cat.”
> 
> **
> 
> Fluff <3

“You brought home a cat.”

“Yes.”

“A cat. Without telling me first. In our apartment, _where no pets are allowed_.”

“Uh,” he mumbles. He has forgotten that last part. “Surprise?”

Taiga glares at him, unamused, and Daiki’s seen enough of that expression to learn to brace himself for an earful. But what he hears instead is –

“Meow.”

They look down, and from behind the shelter of Daiki’s arms pops out a tiny kitten head. They watch in silence as the kitten turns its head around, as if curious of its new surroundings. It then gazes up at Daiki, turns its head towards Taiga, then lets out a small, drawn out mewl.

“Oh my god. That’s so fucking cute. Isn’t it cute, Taiga?” he gushes, and he looks up just in time to see his boyfriend school his expression from absolutely endeared to stubbornly annoyed.

Ah, they’ve got him. “So we’ll keep it, yeah?”

Taiga scowls and crosses his arms, like he’s trying to stop himself from reaching out and cooing at the cute little kitten. “I told you. The landlord doesn’t allow pets here.”

“ _Your dad_ owns this building, Taiga. He tells the landlord what he can and can’t allow,” Daiki argues. He watches in amusement as Taiga chews at his lip, obviously trying to come up with another excuse.

“Well, do you even know how to take care of a cat? You can’t even put your dirty clothes in the hamper!”

“Hey, that was one – okay, three times – but I haven’t done that for a month now! See, I’m learning. And there’s always Google,” Daiki says, actually proud of himself for thinking about that last one, because _obviously_  he doesn’t know how to take care of a cat.

Taiga still looks uncertain, so Daiki wraps a hand around the kitten and presents its small, bedraggled body to him. “This little fella was left alone in the street, babe. Look, it is very hungry and _very_ lonely.”

“Don’t ‘babe’ me. I know what you’re trying to do,” Taiga says, tone accusing and eyes narrowed.

“C’monnnn, _Taiga._ ” He can’t keep the smirk off his face, but thankfully his boyfriend is busy eyeing the kitten, worry slowly creeping into his expression like Daiki knew it would. Then, in the most earnest and pleading tone he can muster (Kise will be proud), he says, “ _Please_ baby, can we keep it?”

“Meoowwww,” comes another soft mewling, like the kitten too was asking if he could stay here, pretty please.

Taiga looks at the kitten, surprised, then at Daiki, then back down again. He’s wavering, Daiki knows, and any second now…

“Fine!” he exclaims, and he looks half pissed, half defeated.

Daiki grins, and he steps forward to draw Taiga into a tight, one-armed hug. “Hell yeah! You really are the best, Taiga!” He then proceeds to rain pecks of kisses all over his boyfriend’s pouting face.

“Ugh, stop, Aho,” Taiga says and pushes him away with a hand to his face. “The cat’s dirty. Hurry up and clean it, since you want to keep it so bad.”

Daiki leans back, his grin stretching even wider at the abashed look on Taiga’s face. God, his boyfriend’s cute. “’Kay. Whatever you want, dear.”

“Don’t be gross,” Taiga scoffs, but the look he shoots him is fond.

Daiki smiles, then places one last, lingering kiss on soft, plump lips before he _finally_ steps out of the genkan. He one-handedly takes off his coat and hangs it on the coat rack, where, as Taiga had insisted many times before, ‘coats rightfully belong, NOT on the floor OR on the back of the sofa, Daiki.’

“We’ll use the sink in the bathroom. You okay with that, little guy?” he asks the kitty as he walks down the hallway.

He only gets a blink of golden eyes in reply.

**

Later, with his hair and clothes sopping wet and disheveled, Daiki learns how much cats actually _hate_ water.

 


	3. lie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You look good tonight.”
> 
> **
> 
> Fluff <3

Taiga enters Maji, takes one look around, and then promptly turns back to leave. Unfortunately, he’s not Kuroko, and his entrance catches the attention of two of the nosiest (for lack of a better word) people he knows.

“Kagamicchi!”

“Kagamin!”

He sighs, deems his escape a failure, and then marches towards the table where Kise, Momoi, Kuroko, and Aomine (just his luck) are sitting at.

“Yo,” he says in greeting. “I was just going to grab dinner and go, so – ”

“You look good tonight.”

Taiga chokes on air. Did Aomine just tell him he looks good? “Sorry, what did you – ?”

“My bad. I meant you look good as always, so it shouldn’t be surprising that you look dashing tonight as well. Your hair is lovely. But my favorite feature of you is your eyes. Oh, and your smile. I can look at your smile all day.” Aomine says, voice low and – dare he say it? – _enamored._ Then he blinks once, twice, and Taiga watches as his eyes almost bug out and his cheeks turn the color of an overly-ripe tomato.

In the back of his mind, Taiga thinks, _‘I didn’t know he can blush like that.’_

Aomine whirls around to face Kuroko, who is sitting on the other side of the booth. “Tetsu, help me!”

He’s been so distracted by Aomine that he only just notices Kise doubled over the table, laughing, and Momoi giggling uncontrollably with tears in her eyes. Only Kuroko is staying calm, though his lips are clearly twitching.

“Okay, spit it out. What’s wrong with the aho over there?” Taiga asks, suddenly irritated at the whole spectacle.

“The only thing wrong with me is the fact that I don’t have you in my life as my significant other, or in my lap as my – ”

“Okay!” Kise exclaims as he reaches over the table to cover Aomine’s mouth. “Better stop there before you say something you’ll regret!”

Aomine pulls away and grabs at Kise’s hand, holding it tight. “Thank you, Kise. You’ve always been kind to me. I know I’ve always been an asshole to you, but I think of you as a friend. Of course, not like Tetsu or Satsuki, because they’re my bestest friends, but a close friend nonetheless,” he says, and though his tone is earnest, his face is pained.

“Aominecchiiiiiiii,” Kise wails, and Taiga’s sure he would have gone over the table to give the other a hug, but Momoi, who’s sitting besides Aomine, gets there first.

“Dai-chan! I knew you cared!” Momoi cries, clinging tight to Aomine’s torso and apparently suffocating him because he begs for air a couple of seconds later.

“So? Mind telling me what this is about?” Taiga says over the noise they’re making. He’s getting pissed off now, and it has everything to do with Kise and Momoi cooing at the blue-haired idiot. The two of them have always been touchy-feely, but seeing it now rubs him the wrong way. The confusion and brittle hope he’s feeling from Aomine’s words earlier aren’t helping either.

Kuroko takes one look at him, and, seeming to sense that he’s getting impatient, he says, “Aomine-kun ate Momoi-san’s cooking and now he can only say the truth. As you saw earlier, he gets an unstoppable urge to say whatever’s on his mind.“

Taiga stares at Kuroko, uncertain. Because on one hand, it makes sense; Momoi is on par with Coach in terms of cooking, and truly, the effects of its consumption are both unfathomable and unprecedented. But on the other, _eating food shouldn’t have this kind of supernatural effect._

“So, what? Aomine can’t lie?”

“I like it when you say my name,” Aomine says suddenly, tone soft and fond.

“What?” Taiga says, breathless and embarrassed. He’s only just realizing that _Aomine can’t lie_ and all the things he’s said earlier, about him looking good and the other sappy things he’s said, were _true_.

“What?” echoes Aomine, then he pauses and tilts his head in thought. “Hm. Actually, I like your voice, period. Especially when you get angry and your voice gets all growly. It turns me on sometimes.”

“Um,” Taiga mumbles, face red and knees weak. “I think I need to sit down.”

All at once, Kuroko, Momoi and Kise stand and exit the booth, bringing with them their bags and their leftover food. And one by one they turn towards the exit, throwing parting words over their shoulders.

“Take care of my close friend, Kagamicchi!”

“Kagamin, I’m leaving Dai-chan to you.”

“Kagami-kun, good luck.”

“Hey, wait!” Taiga shouts, panicking, and he almost goes after them if not for the hand suddenly tugging at his own. He startles and turns around, seeing Aomine looking down at their clasped hands and honest to god _smiling._

“Oh. I’ve always wanted to hold your hand,” Aomine whispers, and Taiga almost dies from how cute the other is being right now.

But then Aomine looks up, and there’s a different glint to his eyes now. “But more than that,” he says, smirking, “I’ve always wondered how it’ll feel like to kiss you.”

Taiga shivers. He has wondered about that too.

 


	4. ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You left, ten years ago.”
> 
> **
> 
> Angst D:

“You left, ten years ago.”

“I _know,_ ” he says, tone pleading. “I know I did. Just – ”

“You didn’t even say goodbye. Didn’t even send a single fucking text. A _‘hey, I’m still alive’_ would have been nice.“

He expects the other to sound accusing, but he just sounds matter-of-fact, like he’s had the time to be angry at the fact that he was left to hang dry after he let himself be vulnerable, in all meaning of the word, and now, now he just doesn’t _care._

It wrecks him to hear that tone on the other man’s voice.

“I’m sorry,” he says, turning desperate. If he could just explain. Explain that he hadn’t wanted to leave. That he had no _choice. “Please – ”_

“I loved you. I waited so long.”

The other man smiles, but it’s not the wide, blinding one he remembers from his memories. The one that used to make his heart stutter a beat, make him flush, make butterflies dance in his stomach. Make him feel so, so in love. He smiles, and it’s sad. His eyes are full of regret, of _pity._

The door behind them opens then, and out comes a child, barely older than three, with flowing black hair and lightly-tanned skin.

“Daddy! Mom’s calling for you!” she says, clutching at the other’s leg.

Her words don’t register until she lifts her head. And that’s when he feels something shatter in him. His heart, his love, his hopes for a future.

Staring up at him were familiar, beautiful dark blue eyes. Eyes so similar to the ones that he has drowned in intimately just once before. Just once before he left without a word to anyone.

And he hears, as if from a great distance, from the other man’s lips –

"But you’re too late, Kagami.”

 


	5. faded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Kagami.”
> 
> “Yeah?”
> 
> “Stay with me?”
> 
> “Always.”
> 
> **
> 
> Angst D:

Everything’s muddled, dark. He can’t see anything; can’t hear anything.

It’s cold. He shivers, curling in on himself, making himself small.

He tries to breathe. He almost doesn’t have the strength to.

In. Out. In. Out.

It’s still dark.

He closes his eyes. And hopes he won’t open them again.

 

* * *

 

“Hey.” A whisper, soft and close. “Hey, Aomine.”

“Mm.”

“Wake up, you idiot.” A hand atop his head, ruffling through his hair, gentle and warm. A sweet, fond voice calling his name.

He blinks awake, disoriented, and the first thing he sees are a bright smile and fiery red eyes. “Who – ?”

“I brought you food,” the man says with a grin as he stands up from the bed.

_Kagami._

“Kagami,” he says as he sits up and rubs at his eyes. “You’re here again?”

The redhead flashes him an amused look as he takes a seat by the table in the center of the room. “Yes, that’s my name. And what are you talking about? I’m always gonna be here. Are you still asleep?”

_He is? Am I?_

“It’s too early to deal with your idiocy,” Daiki grumbles as he lowers himself to the floor and picks up his bowl of rice and chopsticks. “Why are you here anyway?”

“It’s already past noon, you idiot. And I was nearby.”

Daiki takes a bite of the teriyaki chicken, and it’s good. Kagami’s cooking has always been good. He eats, ravenous, and in the next minute he’s already on his second serving. He finishes another bowl before he notices Kagami’s just sitting across him, doing nothing.

“Why aren’t you eating?” he asks as he reaches for his glass of water.

“I already ate,” Kagami says in reply, then goes on to stare at Daiki with an intent look.

He glares back. “What are you staring at? Do I have rice on my face or something?”

Kagami laughs. “Or something.”

“Bastard,” he grumbles, wiping at his lips with the back of his hand.

It only makes Kagami laugh harder. “You keep missing it! Here – ” he reaches out a hand, stopping an inch away from Daiki’s cheek and waving his fingers around. “It’s _there,_ you idiot.”

“Fuck off,” Daiki hisses and rubs at the spot Kagami pointed at.

He continues eating – he’s _so hungry_ – and before long he finishes, belly full and satisfied. He leans back on the bed and grins at the redhead. “Man, that was good. You gotta cook for me again, Kagami.”

“No way!” the other says. “Not for free at least.”

“ _Fine._ How about a game later?” Daiki sighs, like it’s all a big chore, but they both know that it’s not.

“Yeah sure. Today’s the day I beat your ass on one-on-one,” Kagami says, tone challenging and excited.

“As if your loser ass can beat me!” he shouts.

The knock on the door distracts Kagami from shouting back an insult of his own, settling on mouthing an _‘Asshole’_ in his direction.

Daiki stands up, shooting him a smug grin as he walks towards the door and opens it. “Mom?”

Her mother smiles at him, small and tentative. She shifts on her feet, her hands clasped around the apron she’s wearing. “Daiki? I heard you talking to someone. Is Satsuki-chan there?”

“Huh?” He glances over his shoulder. “No? It’s just – ” he pauses, staring in confusion as Kagami brings up a finger over his lips and shakes his head. “Er? It’s nothing,” Daiki says as he looks back at his mother. “I was watching a video on my phone.”

The smile wavers on her mother’s face. “Are you sure, Daiki?”

“Yup.”

“Have you eaten? Taken your pills?”

“Yes, Mom.” _What pills?_

She looks at him for a bit longer before she sighs. “Alright then. If you’re feeling better today, can you bring down the plates later so I can wash them?”

“Uh. Sure, Mom.”

_Weird_ , he thinks as he shuts the door. Why does his mother know about the food but not that Kagami brought them? He walks towards Kagami’s side and whispers, “Why doesn’t Mom know you’re here? Did you climb up the window again?”

“Maybe,” Kagami says, chuckling softly.

He rolls his eyes at that and crouches down to clean up the mess on the table. “Hey, help me here. The sooner I finish, the sooner you can cry because you lost again.” In his haste, he knocks over a bright orange bottle, watching it roll towards Kagami and the idiot not doing anything to stop it from falling off the table.

“No way. _You_ ate it so _you_ clean it up. And we’ll see who’s gonna cry later, you aho!”

Daiki just laughs at Kagami’s offended face. _He missed this._

**

“Wait a sec – ” Daiki gasps as he doubles over, one hand on his knee and his breathing labored.

He’s trembling so much.

“What, tired already Aomine? It’s only been ten minutes,” comes Kagami’s mocking voice. When Daiki looks up, he sees that the bastard isn’t even sweating.

“Shut up! You haven’t even scored a point, let alone taken the ball from me,” Daiki says. He straightens up and dribbles in place before he takes aim, raising his arms with difficulty, and shoots. But at the last second, his vision tilts, and the ball goes flying off to who knows where.

Seriously, what’s with him today? His body feels heavy, bigger than he’s used to. And he feels so weak. He’d gone against Kagami for longer than this before, _hours_ even. But now he feels likes he’s going to collapse if he stays upright for a minute longer.

Maybe he’s coming down with something? Ah, Kagami really has bad timing. Why couldn’t he have come here earlier? He sighs as he moves towards the bench where he has left his bag. “Damn, this is stupid.”

As he takes a step forward though, he’s hit by a sudden bout of dizziness and he stumbles, falling hard on his ass on the concrete.

_‘What’s happening to me?’_ he thinks, frustrated and scared. He blinks, and the next second Kagami’s there, sitting in front of him with a worried look on his face.

“Hey Aomine. You okay?” he asks, tone gentle, and Daiki almost instantly feels himself relax.

“Yeah. Though I feel like I’m going to barf. Did you poison me or something?”

“Don’t you dare barf on me! And no, why would I even poison you?”

“Oh, you know. It’s the only way you’ll defeat me after all,” Daiki teases, and as expected, Kagami almost bursts a vein as he sets off into an angry tirade.

They stay sitting like that for a few minutes, talking about basketball, basketball, and more basketball. Daiki hears his phone go off a few times, but it’s too far away and neither of them has the patience to go over there and answer it. The court is empty save for the two of them, and Daiki prefers it that way.

“Kagami, you remember that match during our first year? Where I lost to you and Tetsu?”

The other looks at him, his expression is unreadable when he says a soft “Yeah.”

“I’m glad you did. That woke me up,” Daiki says with a grin.

Kagami smiles, and later, much later, Daiki will remember that it looks so very sad.

“Dai-chan!”

Daiki whips his head around and sees Satsuki running up to him, breathless and almost panicked. “Satsuki?”

She stops beside him and crouches down, and Daiki notices that her eyes are wide and wet. “We’ve been looking all over for you! Why didn’t you answer your phone?!”

“We were busy and – ”

“We were worried! We thought something happened! That you could’ve… Let’s go, Dai-chan. Please don’t leave like that again,” Satsuki says in a rush, her voice trembling and high as she grips his arm. She stands up, trying to pull him up with her, and Daiki follows.

“Don’t get your panties in a twist,” he says, irritated. “I was with Bakagami anyway, so you didn’t have to – ”

“Who?” Satsuki whispers, low and uneven. Her grip tightens.

“Uh, Kagami? Who else?” Daiki says, confused.

Satsuki looks up at him, and the look of fear and despair in her eyes makes him cold all the way down to his toes. “Oh, Dai-chan.”

She doesn’t say anything more as she drags him to the bench, picks up his bag, and leads the way out. Her quiet sniffling is loud in the silence of the court.

It’s too silent. Empty. Like it’s just the two of them there. Daiki stops, takes a breath, and looks back.

 

He’s right.

**

_“He stopped taking his medication again, Auntie.”_

_“How can you be sure? He told me he took them earlier.”_

_“He… he said his name again.”_

_“You mean…?”_

_“Kagami.”_

_“Oh… oh god. Satsuki, what should we do?”_

_“… I don’t know. Maybe we could – ”_

He moves away from the door and locks himself in his room.

**

 “Kagami.”

“Yeah?”

Daiki looks at him, at his bright grin and his fiery red eyes. They’re standing close, and if he leans just the slightest bit forward, they can touch, foreheads against each other and warm breath on each other’s skin.

But Daiki doesn’t move. He’s afraid that if he does, the other will disappear.

“Stay with me?”

Kagami grins at him, wide and alive. “Always.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really liked this one (yes, evil, I know) and I'm interested to hear you guys' interpretation of it ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ


	6. tastes like blood and death, i

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He sees the glint of steel a split second too late.
> 
> **
> 
> Gantz AU / Violence :)))

He sees the glint of steel a split second too late.

He’s already taken a step to the side, moving in front of the girl and pushing her back, and in the next instant, faster than he can blink, he feels white-hot heat sinking into his chest, searing and burning, and _he’s just been fucking stabbed._

He stares, wide-eyed, at the man in front of him, and he sees a fear-streaked face gaping back at him in horror before the man yanks out the knife, turns on his heel, and runs away. He gasps for air, but it’s like breathing in tiny pieces of glass.

_It hurts._

His vision tilts violently, and he hears screaming, the sound of it shrill in the narrow alley. He collapses on his side hard, and he coughs up the last of his air and – blood. That’s blood. He’s bleeding. He’s –

_Dying. I’m dying._

He sees the girl kneel in front of him, mumbling things he can’t make out over the pounding in his ears, and he sees the panic in her eyes, which he notices dazedly were a bright shade of pink. He thinks he hears her say something about a broken phone, but he’s not sure. His eyelids feel so heavy, so he closes them, and the next thing he knows, there’s something pressing down on his chest, and the pain shoots through him again, more intense this time.

“ – sorry, I’m sorry,” the voice comes from above him with sudden clarity,  “I needed to – y-you’re bleeding so much! _Help! Please help us!”_

Nobody comes.

The girl grabs his hands and looks at him, tears flowing down her cheeks. “I’ll call for help. Here, press down here. I’m sorry, I know it hurts. Please wait for me,” she says as she stands up and hurries towards the street.

“No, don’t – ” he tries to speak, to tell her not to leave him there all alone – he doesn’t like being left alone – but he chokes on his words, on the blood coming up his throat. He feels his whole body weaken, and his hands fall back to his sides.

There’s darkness creeping at the edges of his vision now, and he knows. He knows that this is where he’s going to die. He closes his eyes, and it’s _true_ – he does see every miserable memory of his childhood flashing before his eyes; every beating, every abuse, and then all the good things that came after, finding a new family to love and who loves him back just as much. He’ll miss them and _god_ , he misses them already.

“I don’t want to – ”

And he breathes his last.

 

 

* * *

 

 

And then he breathes again.

He opens his eyes and sits up, and if he ever thought that there’s an afterlife, it certainly wouldn’t look like this: a room with a couple of people sitting and standing around, and there, on the floor towards the back, sits a huge sphere of pure, pure black.

_What the hell?_

“Kagami-kun?” someone says from behind him, the voice familiar except for the note of surprise in it.

He stands up on shaky legs, turns, and he sees – “Kuroko?! What are you doing here? I was – ”

“You died, Kagami-kun,” he says, and though Taiga has only ever seen him blank-faced in class, he still recognizes the look of alarm and… pity? that’s slowly forming on his face. “I’m sorry.”

“But I’m – ”

“You died,” Kuroko says again, his blue eyes seemingly darker in the lighting of the room. “Unfortunately… you didn’t stay dead.”

And then Kuroko explains, with his expression becoming more and more impassive with every word he says, about how they’ve been “revived,” about aliens and missions given by the black sphere he called ‘Gantz,’ and many other things he isn’t in any capacity to understand at the moment.

Taiga’s mind is reeling. This can’t be happening. He was _stabbed_ , for god’s sake! He died! Didn’t he? Was that all a dream? But he still remembers the stinging pain as the knife buried itself deep into his flesh, how it hurt and how he felt his blood, wet and sticky and so, so, _red_ , flow out of him, how he can taste it – coppery and metallic – on his tongue.

Except now he can breathe just fine and, when he lifts a hand to his chest, there’s no pain and there’s no blood. He doesn’t feel _dead._

_Seriously, what the fucking hell?!_

 


	7. first

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I’m doing what it says on that stupid video. Where the hell is your damn prostate?”
> 
> **
> 
> Smut :3

“Aomine,” he grunts. “It feels…”

“Good?”

Taiga flinches as the fingers curl again. They’re just… moving around awkwardly inside his ass. “Fucking _weird_. Do you even know what you’re doing?”

The hopeful smile drops off Aomine’s face. “I’m doing what it says on that stupid video. Where the hell is your damn prostate?”

“How should I know?!” he hisses at the boy hovering above him. “It’s the first time I’ve had something up my ass!”

“God, shut up for a sec!” Aomine growls out. He glares at him before he turns his attention back down, at his fingers pushing in and out of Taiga’s hole.

The fact that he’s being fingered open by his boyfriend for the first time, after a couple months of heavy making out and mutual jerking off, has embarrassed the hell out of him earlier. But now he’s just frustrated beyond belief, because it’s been _minutes_ and the promised toe-curling and back-arching pleasure of anal stimulation as all gay porn seem to show is nowhere to be found and felt.

Aomine’s obviously not feeling any joy in the situation too, focused as he is with opening Taiga up for his dick. His dick, which, Taiga only just realizes, is going soft when before he’d been so excited, and hard, and _big._

“Aomine, just fuck me already,” he says. Maybe it will feel better for both of them once Aomine’s dick is inside him?

The other boy stops and sends him a concerned look. “Are you sure? I don’t want to hurt you.”

Taiga feels heat burning at his cheeks again. Why does he still keep getting surprised at Aomine being such a considerate lover? “Yes, just… come here for a sec.”

He breathes out a sigh of relief as Aomine pulls his fingers out and scoots closer. Taiga sits up and winds an arm around Aomine’s neck, pulling him forward and pressing their mouths together, their lips moving against each other’s softly, then more and more insistently until they’re nipping at swollen lips. He feels Aomine’s tongue trace his bottom lip and Taiga lets him in, feeling a shudder run down his spine as Aomine licks at his palate and glides his tongue against his, wet and hot.

Taiga brings his other hand up to circle around Aomine’s cock, and they share a breathless moan – Aomine at the feeling of Taiga’s rough, calloused hand around him, and Taiga from the fact that Aomine’s already half hard just from kissing. They both are, actually. Kissing Aomine has always turned him on – he just tastes _so good._ He continues jerking Aomine’s cock to fullness, and this, this he knows how to do. It’s familiar, the weight and heat of Aomine’s cock on his hand. He alternates between fast, hard strokes and slow, rolling twists of his wrist around the head that he knows drives Aomine crazy.

He rolls a condom down Aomine’s length, and not long after that Taiga finds himself on his knees, ass up in the air, with Aomine behind him, sucking bruises up his back and whispering harshly in his ear –

“Kagami, I’m putting it in.”

“Yeah, okay.” Taiga swallows hard. “Okay.”

It is _not_ okay.

Aomine’s big, he knows that, but he seems much bigger as he’s sliding in his ass and fuck, _it hurts._ Taiga bites his lip as he feels the cock head fully breach him, spreading his hole wide, the stretch of it burning him from the inside.

“ _Fuck.”_

“Kagami,” Aomine moans, “you’re so tight.”

“No shit,” he grits out. Three fingers weren’t enough to prepare him. How the hell did they think it would be enough? Aomine’s been generous with the lube, but there’s still the sharp, stinging pain of Aomine’s cock slowly sinking into him. Aomine’s not the whole way in yet, but Taiga already feels so full, he’s afraid he’ll be ripped open if the other moves even an inch deeper.

“Babe, fuck. Relax,” comes Aomine’s voice, grating and rough.

There’s a hand rubbing on Taiga’s hip in soothing, circling motions, but he’s far from relaxed, and he can actually feel his arousal wilting. Then Aomine moves closer and Taiga unconsciously tenses around his cock, drawing gasps from them, both pained.

“Kagami, you got to – ”

“I can’t, I can’t,” he groans, clenching his fingers against the sheets. “It hurts.”

“Shit, shit. Okay, let’s stop.”

“What? No, just continue – ” he tries to say, but Aomine’s already pulling out, the motion of it hurting more because he has wanted to do this with Aomine ever since that first clumsy kiss they shared under the basketball hoop; he wants their bodies to be connected like this. He looks over his shoulder, and he sees in Aomine’s eyes that he wants that too.

“I want you, Aomine,” he says, his voice coming out high, needy, and demanding, but he doesn’t care; the embarrassment is worth it to hear the other’s hitched breath.

Aomine curses and leans forward, cradling Taiga’s face with one hand, his hold gentle as he swipes his thumb on his cheek – he hadn’t noticed his tears – and kisses him deep but brief. “I want you too,” he whispers, looking him straight in the eye.

When Aomine leans away, Taiga settles back to his elbows and buries his face on his arms. He hears the cap of the lube bottle open again and wills himself to relax as he tries to think about how it’s going to be so messy to clean up later and not how he’s going to be spread open again.

Aomine grabs his arms and pulls his upper body towards his, until his back is pressed against Aomine’s chest. Taiga only gets a second to be confused at the change in position – because how the hell does this aho think he’s going to fuck Taiga like this – before he feels Aomine’s cock run teasingly, wetly, over his hole then slide between his thighs.

“Aomine! What are you doing?!” he says, startled at the feeling of Aomine’s hot, hard flesh – his mind absently notes that he’s gotten rid of the condom – against the soft skin around his hole and towards his balls.

“Shut up. This is fine for now. Move your thighs closer together _yeah, fuck_. Just like that, Kagami,” Aomine says, his voice dropping a few pitches, to that velvety-smooth timbre that makes Taiga shiver and his dick hard.

And god, is he fucking hard.

Aomine brings his arms around Taiga’s torso, one hand travelling up his chest to pinch and pull at his nipple, and the other wrapping tight around his cock. He continues thrusting, and Taiga moans, overwhelmed at the skin-on-skin contact and every inch of him pressed against Aomine’s body, Aomine gasping and panting Taiga’s name against his nape, and the novel sensation of Aomine’s cock sliding through an area he hadn’t thought could be this sensitive and feel so, so, _good._

He feels dizzy, and as he wraps his own hand over the one Aomine has on his cock and he thrusts back to meet Aomine’s quickening ones, he knows they’re not going to last. He reaches blindly over his shoulder and grabs at Aomine’s hair, wet with sweat. Taiga tilts his head to the side and pulls Aomine closer until Taiga can reach his lips and groan into his mouth.

“Aomine, faster. I’m close – ”

“Me too. Fuck, Kagami, I – ” and he trails off, his movements getting sloppy, almost frantic.

The next thrust is a little too hard, rough, and the head of Aomine’s cock rubs against his balls, and with a sudden cry, Taiga cums over both of their hands.Then Aomine moans loudly into his neck and stills. Taiga can feel his cum, warm, running down the back of his thighs.

Taiga slumps against Aomine and hears him grunt before he moves and arranges them until they’re both lying down, Aomine still wrapped around him. Taiga’s feeling so sated and loose-limbed that he can’t even complain that they’re both still messy and staining the sheets.

“Hey Aomine,” he says.

“Yeah?”

“I want to do that to you too.”

Aomine hums, the sound utterly satisfied and like he’s already on the edge of sleep. “Mm. After I nap.”

“Okay.”

“Mm’kay.”

Aomine’s already softly snoring, and Taiga follows on his next breath.

They hadn’t gone all the way, but half an hour later, when he’s thrusting between Aomine’s thighs and sucking marks on his shoulders, he thinks that this way, their bodies are connected too.

 


	8. double

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He hadn’t really thought that he would like it. 
> 
> **
> 
> Smut :3

He hadn’t really thought that he would like it. But the thing with having Taiga fuck him the first time, and the second, third, and all the others times after that is… he has come to like it. He has come to like it _very much._

So much so that an orgasm without something, anything up his ass feels unsatisfactory. Empty. He wants, _needs,_ something in him, and sure he can finger himself, but why should he when he can have Taiga’s thick fingers in him, or his tongue, or his cock; he’s not really that picky.

He just loves the feeling of being full. Loves feeling the stinging burn of the initial penetration, the wet slide of Taiga’s huge, hard girth inside him, parting his hole so wide and fucking him so deep he can hardly breathe.

Daiki likes when Taiga takes him slowly and gently, like he has all the time in the world to take him apart, but what he loves the most is Taiga fucking him with wild abandon, Taiga thrusting hard inside him, the pleasure of Taiga’s cock rubbing at his spot, abusing it, making him cum, and Taiga spilling inside him, his heat painting his walls, making Daiki _his_.

It’s so, _so_ much better because Taiga likes doing it too.

But sometimes, like tonight, Taiga wants to be wrecked and owned like that too. And Daiki, like the good boyfriend he is, always gives him what he wants.

So now he’s balls-deep inside Taiga, with Taiga’s legs wrapped high around his waist, his moans shuddering close to his ear, his nails scoring down his back as Daiki rocks into him, each thrust making the man underneath him shake and writhe in pleasure. He pushes in deeper and rolls his hips, loving the way Taiga gasps and arches his back, his face flushed and chest heaving as Daiki fucks him right where it feels good the most.

“So good, Daiki,” Taiga groans. His eyes flutter open, fixing him with a heated gaze coupled with a sly smirk. “Your turn.”

Then his fingers clench around the small device on his hand, and soon, Daiki’s moans are joining Taiga’s, the vibrations inside him ratcheting up from a slow, low buzz to a fast, intense rhythm that presses down, hard and unrelenting, on his prostate.

(Because while Daiki is a good boyfriend, Taiga is the _best_ , and he gives Daiki just what he _needs_.)

Taiga isn’t letting up on the remote, and _god,_ the double stimulation from the dildo shoved and vibrating up Daiki’s ass and the heat of Taiga squeezing tight around his cock is making him dizzy with pleasure. It’s too good, almost too much. He’s so close to the edge that he’s sure that he’ll careen over it if he moves, if he so much as _breathes._

He stills. He doesn’t want to cum just yet.

Unfortunately, his lover has other plans. Taiga lowers one of his legs and trails it down Daiki’s back, and with his foot, he pushes against the dildo, pressing it impossibly deeper inside him and making him buck his hips forward, Taiga’s ass sucking him in further.

“Taiga, Taiga, I can’t anymore _shit,”_ he grips at the other’s hips hard and groans, loud even through the buzzing of the dildo.

“I didn’t say you could stop, Daiki,” Taiga says, teasing and scolding in equal measures, and then he whines, breathy and high, outright ordering him now, “Fuck me, c’mon. _C’mon_. Faster, faster, _faster.”_

And Daiki does, because he’s always been powerless against Taiga’s needy pleas and the look of pure desire on his face. He leans forward, bracing himself on his forearms and mouthing at the sweat on Taiga’s neck. He feels Taiga wrap his arms around his back and reach behind him, grabbing at his ass and squeezing his cheeks against each other, the action making the dildo inside him rub against his walls.

Daiki moans, high and long, and now he’s moving frantically, desperate for release. And he knows, even through the haze, even as he wraps a hand around Taiga’s cock and jerks it with the same fast pace he’s using to fuck Taiga’s asshole, that he’ll finish first.

That he’ll cum _so hard._

And in the next second, he does cum, and even as he feels his balls draw up and he spurts inside Taiga, he doesn’t stop thrusting, doesn’t stop until Taiga’s insistent tightening around him milks every last drop out of him.

 _Fuck,_ he’d missed Taiga’s ass.

Daiki lets out a ragged breath, pulls out, crawls back on his knees, and then wraps his lips around Taiga’s cock. He hears Taiga make a low, keening whine, and the sound of it, along with the thickness and warmth of the flesh on his mouth, the taste and shape of it on his tongue, makes his own dick twitch in response.

Taiga wraps his hands around his head, and Daiki doesn’t know if it’s to push him further down his length or to just have something to hold on to. Either way, Daiki takes more of his lover inside his mouth; it’s not a secret that they both like having Daiki choke on Taiga’s cock.

The remote lies forgotten on the bed, the setting now turned down to low. But just knowing that the dildo is inside him, filling him up, feeling every involuntary spasm of his hole around its faint vibrations, makes him _hungry_. So he sucks Taiga down with more vigor, inserts three of his fingers up Taiga’s cum-filled hole, and gets even more turned on at the wet sounds echoing in his ear.

Taiga’s hands are curling tighter through his hair, his moans getting louder, more guttural, and he manages a choked off gasp of Daiki’s name before he’s tensing, body arching off the bed and hips thrusting almost mindlessly, uncontrollably, into his mouth, and _oh fuck_ , he can feel Taiga’s cum hit the back of his throat, the familiar taste of it on his tongue making him grind down on the sheets with a whine.

When he leans back and up on his knees, he’s fully hard again, trembling with arousal, the look of bliss on Taiga’s face not doing anything at all to calm him. Taiga notices, and smiles.

“I’ll ride you,” he says after a while, his voice low and gruff. “And if you manage not to cum before me, I’ll fuck you rough the next time, on your knees like you need me to.”

Daiki almost cums right there and then.

Taiga sits up, picks up the remote with a grin and a heated stare, and says, “Ready?”

The quickening buzz drowns out his whispered _“Fuck.”_

 


	9. rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Daiki, I want you again. I still want you.”
> 
> **
> 
> Smut :3

There’s something about the rain. The rhythmic pitter-pattering of the drops against the window, the cold seeping through the walls.

It makes him heavy-lidded and lethargic; makes him burrow under the blankets and curl sideways into himself, trying to keep the warmth close.

But with the rain comes the harsh gushing of the wind, the loud clap of thunder. And these, these are what gets to Taiga, makes his blood pulse, makes him hot and bothered.

It makes his lover crawl over his body, breathing warm huffs of air against his ear, whispering, _“Daiki,_ I want you.”

He shivers even through the combined heat of the blankets and Taiga’s hard body, but his limbs are heavy and he doesn’t want to move, he’s a blink away from sleep and –

 _“Ah!”_ he gasps – feeling Taiga’s teeth nibbling at his lobe – “ _Taiga_ ” – feels lips kissing behind his ear – “ _Nnghh fuck”_ – feels Taiga’s mouth sucking a bruise on his neck.

He turns his head, and whatever he was going to say – a refusal or an enthusiastic ‘yes,’ he doesn’t know – gets swallowed up by Taiga’s kiss, a slow, gentle slide of lips that lasts for only a heartbeat, and suddenly, like a switch’s been flipped, it turns into a wild and hungry clash of lips and teeth, like the other wants to eat him up and steal his breath away at the same time.

Taiga nips at his bottom lip and pulls at it, and he groans, opening his mouth to welcome Taiga’s tongue in, and that’s it, he’s always been weak and they both know it. He slowly feels himself unfold under Taiga’s skillful kisses and the hands now leaving searing trails on his chest and his hip. And when he’s finally on his back, Taiga grinds down and lines their lengths up, hard and hot against each other even through the cotton of their boxers, and when he moans in anticipation, the sound of it gets lost in the cacophony of nature rumbling outside their home.

The blanket’s long gone now, as well as what little clothes they have, but the heat of Taiga’s gaze, his kisses and his touch, is more than enough to keep the cold at bay, his body feeling even more feverish than before.

When Taiga leans back to grab the lube, he raises a hand, lazily tracing circles around his nipple, the other stroking teasingly over his cock. He looks over at Taiga kneeling in front of him, already breathing hard like he’s already cum once or twice, and he smirks, opening his thighs in silent invitation.

Taiga growls, pouncing on him and muttering praises against the skin of his throat – “So _sexy,_ so _hot_ , god I _want_ you.” He just sighs and lies back, letting Taiga do whatever he wants with him, relishing the attention when usually he’d at least pretend – loudly – that he doesn’t want to be pinned down and bitten and bruised. He loves the heat of Taiga wrapping his hand, huge and calloused and slicked with lube, around both of their cocks and starting an almost-frantic pace that feels so good it makes his eyes roll back and his fingers scratch at every bit of Taiga’s skin he can reach.

The pleasure builds and builds, a slow-boiling heat that curls at his gut with each stroke and slide of Taiga’s cock alongside his. Taiga leans over him, kissing him sloppily and his tongue moving over his, and Taiga’s free hand rubs and pulls at his nipple, insistent and just a touch rough, all the sensations accumulating until it’s too much and it finally pushes him over.

He moans, his orgasm rolling through him in slow, steady waves, leaving him trembling, sated, and out of breath. With dazed eyes, he watches Taiga watch him until he jerks and comes to his own completion, his own sound of pleasure ragged and harsh.

He breathes in, the air cold and tinged with the smell of their sex, and he feels so sluggish he almost drifts off to sleep, but outside, he can hear the rain as it rages even stronger, the lightning slashing bright across the night sky and the thunder crackling hardly a second after, louder than ever before.

And above him, Taiga pants, his eyes burning with barely-fulfilled need as he leans closer, closer until they’re sharing the same stuttered breath, and says –

“Daiki, I want you again. I _still_ want you.”

He grins and licks his lips, feeling arousal stir languidly in him. “Don’t get so cocky, Taiga.”

There’s something about the rain that he loves – the soft, rhythmic drumming of the drops on the roof and the windows, the wind gushing, the thunder booming; it makes him shiver from the cold, with want, makes him pliant as he gasps out pleasured moans and his lover’s name, as he arches into the warmth of the other’s thrusting hips.

Again, and again, then one more time until he finally drops, spent and fucked out, beside Taiga.

On the verge of sleep, he feels a kiss on his temple and a body snuggling against his back. And outside, the rain has stopped.

 


	10. cold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Let me in,” comes the whisper.
> 
> **
> 
> Weird o.o

It’s outside his window again; waiting, waiting, its long, sharp nails _tap-tap-tap_ ping against the glass in a slow, rhythmic cadence that almost, _almost_ lulls him into a daze he can’t afford to be in. But it will tire of waiting soon, and it is this certainty that makes him curl tighter unders his covers, hands pressed tight over his ears, wishing it would go away, that he won’t hear –

“Let me in,” comes the whisper, like it has every night for the past month, for the past year, for as long as he can remember.

He shivers, and he tells himself it’s from fear, it’s fear, he won’t give in tonight, not again, not again.

He opens his eyes, and he finds himself in front of the window, his hands already reaching out towards the latches, and outside, even in the darkness of this cloudy night, he sees it grin, sees its sharp, pointed teeth, and he sighs, closing his eyes as he senses it come in and wrap him up in its embrace, making him tremble in anticipation, in fear, feelings that last for only a second more before there’s a pressure on his neck, cold and piercing, and from then on – all he feels, all he knows, is pure bliss.


	11. bruise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They’re almost gone, he notes with dismay: the bruises.
> 
> \----
> 
> Smut :3

They’re almost gone, he notes with dismay: the bruises.

He stares at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, at the barely-there marks of Daiki’s lips and teeth dotting the line of his neck, along the breadth of his shoulders, down the planes of his chest, at the even fainter outlines of Daiki’s fingers around his wrists and on his hips.

He sighs. It’s barely even been a week, and all the proof Daiki has left on his skin from their night together has all but disappeared. Even the scratches on his back have stopped stinging under the spray of the shower. And the soreness… that’s always the first to go.

He misses it. He misses Daiki; misses his kiss, his touch, his heat, his stupid, dumb smile. Misses seeing and feeling that he belongs to someone. He wishes that he’s not left to count the days since they last met and thinking when they will get to see each other again.

And he wonders whether the marks _he_ left on Daiki’s skin, especially the one he secretly left high up his nape, have started fading yet.

 

* * *

His back hits the wall hard, and he barely manages to gasp in air before he’s being pinned by a heavy, warm heat, a hot, wet tongue slipping past his lips, licking at his mouth and making his knees weak.

He moans.

Daiki leans back, face flushed and eyes dark with want and need. He lays a hand on his cheek, his touch gentle, and breathes against his lips, “ _Taiga_. Fuck, you don’t know how much I missed you.”

It’s been almost two months. The time apart is the only thing he hates about playing in different teams.

“You idiot,” he says, voice rough and broken. Of course Taiga fucking knows. He’s been missing him even before he left.

He reaches out, wrapping his arms around Daiki’s neck and bringing him closer, closer until there’s barely any space between them, until he feels every inch of the other’s body against his. “Show me. Mark me again.”

They fuck, make love – there’s always been a fine line between the two for them – over and over, taking turns throughout the night. There’s an almost desperate edge to it, to every kiss, and every touch, every moan and every thrust.

“Daiki – I-I want _aahhh_ – ”

“What do you want?” Daiki licks the sweat off his neck, sucking and biting over the marks he’s already left there and leaving more on his skin. He pulls out, his grip on Taiga’s hips tightening as he pushes back into him even deeper, but oh-so-painfully slowly. “Harder? Or,” he grins, his thrusts suddenly turning quick yet shallow, “faster?”

Fucking tease.

“ _Both_. Both, give me fucking both,” he says, legs wrapping tight around Daiki’s waist and hands scratching and pulling at his hips to get him to move the way Taiga wants him to. He sounds impatient and needy as fuck but he’s past caring at this point. He just wants to be fucked thoroughly. Wants to feel it as long as possible.

And with a choked-off laugh and a low moan, Daiki does fuck him harder and faster. Taiga didn’t think he could cum again, but it’s too good – too good, too good, Daiki always knows how to make him feel too good – and not long after that he climaxes with his lover’s name spilling from his lips like a chant, his vision blurring at the edges, and his heart pounding against his chest so fucking quickly it feels like it’s going to burst out of him.

Above him, Daiki curses, and inside him, his thrusts turn sloppy, almost erratic, and Taiga reels him in closer and kisses him, letting Daiki moan his own completion into Taiga’s mouth.

It tastes so very sweet.

**

He props himself up on his elbows, wincing as the motion pulls at his muscles and the bruises and makes the soreness in his ass known. He sighs; he had missed this feeling.

Taiga looks at the man sprawled on his front beside him. He reaches out, his fingertips grazing the bared skin of Daiki’s nape, and he sees that the mark there is gone. Of course it is.

Daiki shivers under his touch and mumbles something incoherent around the pillow his face is buried in.

“What?” Taiga asks, his hand moving to tug at the hair at the back of the other’s neck. It’s getting long.

He smiles; he likes it long.

Daiki turns his head to the side, one blue eye staring up at him blearily. “I said, everyone on the team saw it.”

Oh. “Good. They know to keep their hands off, then.” He smirks, satisfied.

“Stop it with your possessive boyfriend shit. You’re making me horny,” Daiki whines as he presses his hips against the sheets.

Taiga would have liked to tease his boyfriend about how it doesn’t take much for him to make Daiki horny anyway – after all, Taiga can get him hard with just a _look_ – but he isn’t really any better. Just seeing Daiki beside him like this, body laid out and every lithe and lean muscle on display, makes arousal stir in his gut. All that dark, smooth skin, and he still hasn’t gotten around to marking every inch of it.

Daiki shifts on his elbows and tilts his head down, Taiga’s eyes hungrily following the arch of his back down to his ass and then up again, to his exposed nape, to the coy look Daiki shoots him with from under his long, dark lashes. “Those hickeys won’t make themselves, y’know,” he says, voice low and equal parts demanding and inviting, his mouth curving into a challenging smirk.

Taiga licks his lips and grins. Fucking right they won’t.

And he’ll make sure these ones won’t fade for a long time.


	12. crown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Teach me how to make a flower crown. So I can make you one every time you cry.”
> 
> **
> 
> Fluff <3

His small hands are shaking as he plucks the flowers from the grass and pulls off the stray leaves. They are clumsy as he struggles to slowly wind one fragile stem around another. Under. Then over. Again, and again, adding more flowers as he goes, just like his mom taught him.

He is careful, not wanting to pull too hard or crush the little white flowers and ruin the crown like he almost did a while ago. And from beside him, he hears the boy sniffle.

Daiki’s hands stop trembling then, the movement of his fingers becoming faster yet more determined.

“What are you doing?” is the first thing the boy says, a minute or so later. His voice is quiet and sad.

Daiki doesn’t like it. He doesn’t like when people are sad.

He mumbles something under his breath as a reply and soon, when he deems the length of the crown enough, he starts on weaving the end of the last stems into the first flowers. When he’s done, he huffs proudly and turns towards where the other boy is sitting less than a foot away.

“It’s a flower crown,” Daiki says, leaning forward and placing said crown on top of the boy’s head. “It’s for you,” he adds, grinning. The white of the daisies go well with the red of the other’s hair. His hair and his eyes are the reddest of reds Daiki has ever seen.

“For _me_? Why?” the boy says, his weird split eyebrows rising in confusion.

“B-because… I…” Daiki stammers, suddenly embarrassed. “Because Mom and Satsuki get happy when I give them one. And you were crying here alone and I-I… thought you’d like…”

“But I’m not a girl.”

“I know that!” he shouts, leaping to his feet and crossing his arms. “Gimme back the damn flowers if you don’t want them!”

The boy gasps. “You said a bad word!”

He did. Mom’s gonna whack him over the head if she hears about it. “I did not!”

“Did too!”

“Did not!”

The boy stands as well, putting his hands on his hips with a smug expression on his face. “Did too!”

Daiki glares and takes a step forward, reaching for the other’s head. “Give me that!”

“No!” the boy jumps back, one of his arm raised and looking just as shocked as Daiki by the shout. He puts his hand down and looks at the ground, rolling a nearby rock around with one foot. “It’s mine.”

“You said you didn’t want it,” he says childishly, knowing the other didn’t really say it but still feeling a little miffed.

“I do like it! It’s just… no one’s made me something like this before so I was surprised.”

Daiki tilts his head. “Why not? How about your mom?”

The boy flinches, his hands clenching tight around his shirt. “My mom’s… not here a-anymore.”

All his irritation vanishes and Daiki wishes he hadn’t asked.

“Sorry…” he mumbles after a beat of silence.

“It’s o— Why are you crying?!”

He rubs at his eyes and sniffs. “I’m n-not.”

“You are!”

“C-coz you said…” he crouches down, hiding behind his hands and hating how his voice is cracking, “your m-mom…”

He doesn’t hear a reply for so long Daiki thinks the other already left. So when he feels something drop on top of his hair, he startles and raises his head. “Wha— ?”

He sees the boy sitting in front of him, and though his eyes are teary and his lower lip is trembling, his mouth is curving into a smile. “You should wear this instead,” he says, pointing to the flower crown now on Daiki’s head. “You’re such a crybaby.”

“I’m not!” he whines, pouting and grumbling.

His outburst makes the boy chuckle, which soon turns to full-blown laughing. Daiki sits there, on the grass along the riverbed, staring and gaping like an idiot at this strange boy with the quiet sobs that wracked his small frame and made Daiki, who was hurrying on his way home, stop and wonder how he can help. At this boy who has a laugh that is bright and infectious that the next second Daiki finds himself laughing too.

When their laughter dies down, the boy shoots Daiki a huge grin, and he feels his own mouth return it.

“I’m Taiga,” the boy with the bright smile and loud laugh says.

“Daiki.”

“Teach me how to make a flower crown. So I can make you one every time you cry,” Taiga says teasingly.

He pushes at Taiga’s shoulder until he’s flat on his back and dumps a bunch of pulled out grass on his face.

“I wasn’t crying!”

**

The sun has already set by the time he drags Taiga, hand in hand, to Daiki’s home. Their clothes are dirtied from wrestling and rolling around the ground and Mom gives them an earful on the genkan.

He glances over to Taiga. The crown Daiki made is back around the boy’s head. And around Daiki’s neck is one of Taiga’s, sloppily done and way too big for his head that it slipped all the way down to his shoulders.

But it’s alright. He has the whole summer to teach Taiga. Who knows, maybe he can teach him basket too!

Taiga looks back at him and grins sheepishly. Daiki grins back, already excited for the next day, and in front of them, his mother just sighs with fond exasperation.

This is gonna be the best summer ever. Daiki can feel it.


	13. stray, i

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Kid,” he says over the man’s loud babbling, and he sees the boy flinch out of the corner of his eye. “I’m going to kill this man.”
> 
> **
> 
> Violence :)))

He kicks the man hard in the stomach and watches with increasing boredom as he crumples to his side and retches, his acrid puke adding to the blood and the filth and waste already dirtying the alley floor.

“Where’s the money you stole?” Daiki asks around a yawn. Fuck, who did he anger for Akashi to assign him this shitty task? He swears he didn’t mean to shoot Wakamatsu on the thigh yesterday!

The man takes advantage of Daiki’s moment of inattention to inch his hand slowly towards his discarded switchblade, but Daiki kicks it away at the last moment and brings his foot crushing down on his fingers. The crunching of his bones is drowned out by the scream he barely manages to get out of his throat.

That’s what he gets for thinking Daiki’s _that_ stupid to not notice him.

“I-I don’t have it any… any longer. P-please, I’ll pay it back,” the man says through his labored breathing.

“Yeah?” Daiki moves closer, using the tip of his shoe to tilt the other man’s chin up, exposing the greying red hair on his temples and the aged lines of his face, the bruises around his bleeding, broken nose and his eye that’s almost swollen shut stark against his pallid skin. “How?”

“M-my son – ”

He steps on the back of the man’s head none too gently and grinds his face against the rough concrete and his putrid vomit. “Yeah, I heard about your _son._ Gonna whore him out again, huh? You fucking disgusting scum.”

“It’s the only way I can – ”

A sharp intake of breath distracts Daiki. He tilts his head to the side, and there, standing near the mouth of the alley is a boy, no older than fourteen, surely, and with a shock of fiery red hair and eyes the color of dull, dried blood.

Ah.

“This your dad, kid?” Daiki asks needlessly, bearing down his weight on the foot still mashing the man’s face on the ground, making him hiss and groan in pain.

“Y… _no,”_ the kid says, shaking his head vehemently.

“Tai– ”

“Not talking to you, old man,” Daiki says, lifting his foot from the man’s head and kicking at his chest where Daiki knows he’d broken at least three of his ribs earlier.

As the man wheezes and chokes out more blood, Daiki takes the chance to look at the kid more closely. And what he sees, he doesn’t like one bit.

He reaches into the inside of his suit jacket and pulls out his gun from the holster. It still glints even in the dim lighting, and it draws the attention of the kid who’d been staring rather intently at his father’s body lying prone on the ground.

As soon as the kid sees the gun, his eyes widen over his bruised, sharp cheeks for a brief second before a blank look falls over his face. He bites down on the cut on his lip and hunches in on himself, making his already thin frame even smaller. He starts tugging at the long sleeves of his shirt, trying to hide the marks of rope on his wrists, but the motion exposes the small, purpling ones on his neck and along his collarbones instead.

_Really fucking disgusting._

Daiki clicks his tongue in rising ire as he crouches beside the man and brings the muzzle of the pistol right between his eyes. Dark, seething satisfaction curls in Daiki’s gut as he sees the man’s one good eye hone in on the barrel of the gun and start to well up with renewed and panicked tears.

 _“Please! Don’t, don’t,_ I’ll pay – ”

“Kid,” he says over the man’s loud babbling, and he sees the boy flinch out of the corner of his eye. “I’m going to kill this man.”

He shouldn’t, because that wasn’t what Akashi ordered him to do, but he _will._ Oh, how he _wants_ to.

“This filthy asshole will die here, beside the trash that’s just like him. And when he’s in hell, he can no longer get to you.” Daiki turns his head and looks straight at the kid, his gaze catching onto the other’s trembling ones. “Leave. And don’t look back.”

The kid stares at him, eyes brimming with unshed tears, but he doesn’t let them fall. Instead, he looks back at him with growing anger and a sort of crazed desperation Daiki knows all too well. He clutches at the ring hanging from his neck, bows his head, and says in a rough, quivering voice, _“Please!”_ before he turns and runs away.

“Taiga!”

Daiki takes the chance to shove the gun inside the man’s mouth; he’s glad he knocked some of this bastard’s teeth out earlier. “Ah, ah,” he tuts. “Don’t say his name, you fucker,” he says, chuckling darkly at the muffled sob the man makes.

When he can no longer hear the kid’s hurried footsteps, he sneers one final time at the slobbering mess of a man, no – _animal_ in front of him and then pulls the trigger.

And then twice more, for good measure.

**

As soon as he steps out of the alley not even a minute later, his face and clothes splattered with blood, he notices the eyes watching him from across the street.

It’s red, and bright, and _alive._

Daiki smirks. This kid is a strong one.


	14. stray, ii

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taiga knows him. The man who killed his father.
> 
> **
> 
> Angst D:

Taiga knows him. The man who killed his father.

 _No, not his father,_  he thinks to himself, remembering this morning (has it really been just hours before?), the man’s words in the gloom and stench of the alley along the back of their apartment, the glint of silver on the muzzle of the gun, the man’s voice. Dark, deep. Angry.

_‘Fucking disgusting scum. Filthy asshole. Trash.’_

Taiga had heard the words before, from his not-father and the company he always has over. Heard the words said with revulsion and mockery, most often with amusement and lust; the words whispered and spat in his ear in the silence of his room while he bit his lips and kept the cries in.

But never had he heard the words spoken with sheer anger, and never had he heard them not directed at him.

A loud honking from a car speeding past their street snaps him out of his daze and takes him back to the now, where he stands, still and silent, in the middle of their cramped living room. 

When he’d gone back inside, the sun was still up in the sky, but now it has began to set and shadows have creeped into the corners of the room. The streetlamp outside then flickers on, casting light through the small window just above the couch and bathing the inside of the apartment in yellow, dim lighting.

He trudges over to the low table sitting off to one side of their kitchen. He remembers sitting there, poring over his homework after school; remembers holding the knife with an unsteady hand and helping his mother chop vegetables for dinner while she stands by the stove, stirring the pot and listening to him telling her about the new friend he met; remembers sitting together and eating warm meals, sharing happy smiles and hearty laughter over the smell of curry in the air.

He remembers coming home one day, four years ago, after an afternoon spent playing at Tatsuya’s house; remembers seeing her body slumped over its wooden top, unmoving; remembers rushing to her side, heart thudding painfully against his chest, only to feel hers have stopped and her skin has turned cold against his touch.

He remembers screaming. Remembers crying. Remembers being put in the care of a father he hasn’t seen since he was two, and how things haven’t been the same since then.

He glances down at the low table. It’s now rickety, old, frail. It seems whole at first glance but if you come nearer, if you look closer, you’ll see the cracks on its surface. Some small, some big, all of them deep.

Like the bruises on his skin.

A strangled, keening sound echoes in the silence, and it takes him a couple of seconds to realize that it came from his own parched throat, past his own cracked lips. He clutches at his chest, bloodied fists curled tight around the rough cloth of his shirt as he doubles over, falling on his knees on the hardwood floor.

 _‘Kid. I’m going to kill this man,’_ he recalls his not-father’s killer say. Taiga presses his forehead against the cold surface of the table, his hands clenched on his hair.

 _‘When he’s in hell, he can no longer get to you,’_  the man’s voice echoes in his head. Taiga squeezes his eyes shut and lets out a broken sob, then another, and another, each one pulling at his insides, building at his throat, making it harder and harder to breathe.

 _‘Leave. And don’t look back,’_  the man had said, his dark eyes searing into him, the promise of his words melting away the fear Taiga has come to live with since the first night he’d heard his bedroom door creak open, and replacing the emptiness it left behind with relief, with anger, with  _life._

And now, it’s starting to sink in. The reality that he really, truly is free. And Taiga finally, finally, allows the tears he’d kept in for hours, for years, to fall. Allows the pain, the hurt, the loneliness and hopelessness to wash out of him in waves, on and on throughout the early evening until he has no more tears left to weep.

He breathes in. Out.

He stands up on shaky legs and walks to the kitchen sink, watching as the water turns red and washes away the dried blood on his hands.

He has cried enough. It’s time to move.

**

The red plastic container is half empty, but still quite heavy for his thin arms. He struggles to drag it from the kitchen and into the living room, then down the hallway towards his room. It’s only fitting that the end will start there.  
  
 _‘Leave.’_  
  
He will. He can’t bear to spend another night in the hell this once-home had become. He’ll forever leave this place, with only the crinkled photo of him and his mom between the clothes he can fit in his worn bag, the thin rolled-up stack of cash he’d stuffed inside a faded sock, and the switchblade streaked with blood that he kept in the back pocket of his pants.  
  
 _‘Don’t look back.’_  
  
He won’t. But he has,  _needs,_  to do this first. Maybe if he erases the place where all his waking nightmares occurred, the memories won’t visit him in his dreams anymore.  
  
When he reaches his room, he makes his way over to the bed, pulling with him the container. He tips it sideways with a grunt, pouring the contents on his sheets and wrinkling his nose at the strong and cloying smell of the gasoline.

He stops after a few seconds. Will that do? Is it soaked enough? Ah, maybe a couple more splashes.

In the end, he empties every last drop over it anyway.

He then places the half-used candle on the floor in the middle of his room, right next to a small pile of newspapers and the trail of liquid leading to the bed. Taiga doesn’t blink as he strikes the match and lights the candle. He stands back up, grabs the bag by the front door, and leaves.

He doesn’t look the fuck back.

**

He knows him, the man who killed his not-father.

He has heard his name whispered with respect and awe and not a small amount of fear. But on the streets, everyone knows him by just one thing, one word.

Monster.

And maybe he is. But to Taiga, he’s more than that. When that man had stood there in the alleyway over the broken body of Taiga’s not-father and with the judgement of death on his lips, he has become the light in the darkness Taiga’d never thought he’d ever see the end of.

Aomine Daiki, with that gun on his hand and those eyes that looked at him not with disgust or pity or desire, has been his only savior.

And Taiga owes him his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tumblr is shit :D

**Author's Note:**

> Updates will be sporadic, i.e., when I feel like procrastinating from my longfic.


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